I Don't Know You Anymore
by Chainlinks
Summary: It takes a year to heal. Yaoi, 1x2, 5x2


Disclaimers: Neither the characters from Gundam Wing or the song "I Don't Know You Anymore" belong to me. Gundam Wing belongs to Bandai, doesn't it? Or is it Sunrise? I don't know, it's some huge company with a lot more money than I have. And "I Don't Know You Anymore" belongs to Savage Garden, and is off of their cd "Affirmation". Since I don't claim to own either one, no one can sue me... Can they?   
  
Warnings: Yaoi, very slight OOC in some cases  
  
Pairings: 1x2, 5x2, 3x4  
  
I Don't Know You Anymore  
  
I would like to visit you for a while  
Get away, and out of this city.  
Maybe I shouldn't have called,  
But someone had to be the first to break.  
  
Heero shook his head fiercely at the blond. "No. We've both moved on." he said stubbornly.   
"But Heero!" Quatre begged. "You need to be friends again! Your not just hurting yourself, your hurting the rest of us too."  
Heero seemed to waver, betraying how much he really wanted to call his ex-lover. "What if he answers?" he asked.  
"Then just ask to talk to Duo." Quatre replied sensibly.  
"He's married." Heero stated.  
"That doesn't mean you can't be friends." Trowa put in.   
"Fine." Heero said, knowing that if Heero agreed, it was usually the right thing to do.  
Heero didn't bother looking for a phone book, he simply picked up a phone and dialed a number. Trowa cocked an eyebrow. Why did Heero known Duo's number by heart?   
***  
Duo bustled around the house, wearing a flour-stained apron, wielding a black feather duster as he paused to dust a bookshelf here, a desk there. From the other side of the house, he heard the oven timer go off.   
"Cookies are done!" he called cheerfully, ducking into a small study where Wufei sat, busily typing reports on bussiness that Duo didn't even pretend to understand.   
Just as Duo had pulled the chocolate chip cookies from the oven, the phone rang. "Get that, Maxwell!" Wufei called.   
"It's Chang now, remember?" Duo yelled back, grabbing the phone as he pulled the awkward oven mit off.   
"Hello, Chang residence, Duo Chang speaking." Duo greeted professionaly.   
"Duo?" a deep voice stammered.  
Duo's face darkened as he recognized it, but he managed to keep his voice light. "Heero! It's been a long time! Almost a year. I didn't see you at the wedding." Duo smirked to himself, remembering how he had sent Heero a gold-inked invitation just to mock him.  
"It's been a long time." Heero repeated. "How are you and..." Heero couldn't bring himself to say the name.  
"Wufei? Oh, we're doing great! You should come over sometime." Duo smirked again, knowing that Heero would never accept.  
"I will. Tommorow, around 11:00, okay?" Heero replied.  
Thrown off balance for a moment, Duo stammered, "Oh... Sounds great! I'll make lunch! Are you bringing Trowa and Quatre?"  
"No." Heero replied, a little too quickly.  
"How are they doing, anyways?"   
"Good."   
"That's great! Give them my congrats. Will you tell them that I'm sorry that Wufei and I couldn't make it to their wedding?"  
"I will."  
An awkward silence stretched where neither one knew what to say. "Still the conversationalist, aren't you, Heero?" Duo couldn't help but laugh.   
"I'll see you tommorow." Heero said abrubtly. "Goodbye." He clicked the phone back onto the reciever, and looked levelly at Quatre.  
"There. Are you satisfied?" he asked. "I'm having lunch with him tommorow."  
Heero turned back before he walked out of the room. "Oh, and Duo apologizes that he couldn't make it to your wedding."   
  
We can sit on your back porch  
Relax.  
Talk about anything,  
It don't matter.   
I'll be couragous  
If you can pretend that you've forgiven me.  
  
Heero rang the doorbell. It took a moment before Duo reluctantly opened the door, obviously-fake cheerfullness plastered across his face. "Heero... It's nice to see you." The fake cheer didn't quite reach his voice.  
"Duo, I'm sorry." Heero blurted out.  
"You think I can forgive you just like that, Heero!?" Duo exploded. "Did you think all it would take was a little 'sorry', and I'd come running back?"  
"Duo, I--"  
"Heero, it's not happening. I'm perfectly happy with Wufei. I love him." Duo walked into the house, motioning with a angry flick of his hand for Heero to follow. He let out a heavy breath of air. "I'm sorry Heero..." he mumbled, calmer. "I just can't forgive you yet."  
"Duo, I'm not asking you to leave Wufei, or even to forgive me. But we're hurting Quatre and Trowa." Heero said, a new tone that Duo had never heard rang through his voice.  
Duo blinked in mild surprise. What had happened to cold, calculating Heero who saw friends only as obsticals. Had a year changed him so much?   
"I'll try... For Quatre and Trowa." Duo finally agreed.  
"I brought sandwiches." Wufei announced as he entered the tense scene, handing Duo a plate of sandwiches and a bottle of ketchup.   
"What's the ketchup for?" Heero inquired.  
Wufei studied Heero for a moment with a cold gaze before answering. "He likes ketchup on cheese and ham sandwiches. It's his favorite."   
Heero felt his cheeks blush red involentarily. Why hadn't he known that? He'd never seen Duo eat ketchup on a sandwich... Or had he? Maybe I just don't remember, Heero told himself. Maybe I wasn't paying attention...  
  
Because I don't know you anymore.  
I don't recognize this place.  
The picture frames have changed,  
and so has your name.  
  
Heero gazed at the pictures on the walls. There were a lot more than there had been a year ago.   
A picture on the beach, Duo smiling into the camera, sitting next to a half-built sandcastle. Another picture, with Duo caught unaware, gazing into space with strands of hair slipping from a sloppy braid.   
Heero forced himself to look at a gold framed picture. Duo and Wufei in tuxedoes-- Wufei's starch white, Duo's night black. They were kissing passionately in a church. More pictures surrounded it, all in smaller silver frames.  
Duo laughing as he threw a boquet of purple flowers, Wufei and Duo cutting a huge wedding cake, Duo and Wufei walking together down an aisle...  
"Like the pictures?" Duo asked, smiling genuinely.  
"I've never seen you so happy." Heero admitted.   
"Figures." Wufei muttered darkly.  
"Should we all go outside and exchange war stories on the back porch, now?" Duo joked, almost desprate as he tried to avoid silence.  
"It's raining, Maxwell." Wufei reminded his spouse.   
"Chang." Duo corrected automatically.  
Heero blinked, slightly confused.  
"Well I'm his husband. He decided to change his name." Wufei explained sharply. Heero nodded. Even if Duo ever forgave him, Heero knew that Wufei never would.  
  
We don't talk much anymore,   
We keep running from the pain.   
But what I wouldn't give to   
see your face again...  
  
*Flashback*  
Duo's face was streaked with tears. "Heero! I tried! But I couldn't..." he sobbed.  
"You could have done it if you tried!" Heero yelled, his fist coming in contact with Duo's cheek. Duo could only cry harder as Heero demanded he stopped.  
Unable to take it anymore, Duo stood and ran from the room, tangled hair half flying out from his braid. As Heero's mind slowly unclouded from the alchohal-induced haze, he realized what he had done. Regrettfully, he also realized that this wasn't the first time.   
Heero cupped his forehead in his hands as guilt welled up inside him. Outside he could hear Duo's sobs lessen to half-strangled crying beneath Wufei's comforting. Jealousy replaced the guilt and he stormed out the door into Wufei's room wich joined his, seperated only by a door.  
"My Duo." he muttered angrily, anger remixing with alchohal. He found Duo half asleep, curled up in Wufei's rocking arms. Heero glared and tore him from Wufei's arms.   
Duo's eyes opened wide in protest. Heero tugged Duo's waist to get him to move, and Duo reluctantly obeyed.  
"Duo. Stay. Please." Wufei commanded.  
Duo turned back. "Wufei..?"   
"He doesn't deserve you." Wufei said fiercely.  
"And you do?" Heero snorted.  
"No." Wufei replied, gazing into Duo's eyes. "But I love him more than you ever could." Duo pulled from Heero's grasp and flung his arms around Wufei's necks, unable to speak.  
*end flashback*  
  
Springtime in the city,  
Always such relief from the winter freeze.  
The snow was more lonely than cold,  
If you know what I mean.  
  
*flashback*  
Duo and Wufei rolled their snowball until it was the perfect size-- very big. The snow was so deep that not even a blade of grass showed through the icey carpet, even along the indented trail where the snowball had sucked snow into it's building.  
Duo laughed for no reason except for the fact that it was cold, and that Wufei had agreed to help make a snowman. Wufei motioned for him to help roll a second ball to serve as an abdomen for the snowman. When it was done, Duo rolled a small snowball, and grinned slyly as he picked it up.   
"Isn't that too small for a head?" Wufei asked curiously.  
"I don't plan on using it as a head." Duo replied, grin growing slowly.  
Wufei's mouth formed an "o" as he caught on, and scrambled backwards. It was no use, and he soon found himself drenched by the cold snowball.   
Duo doubled over laughing, managing something that sounded suspicously like "drowned rat". He quickly found himself with a snowball impacting against his chest. This started an entire evening of running, dodging, and throwing snowballs.   
That night, after the lights in the house had gone out, a dark car drove up. A figure got out and gazed at the house for a moment, before observing the yard. Footprints tangled in untraceable trails across the lawn. In the center of it all, a snowman stood, his head and accessories added after the snowball fight had been resolved. A red scarf fluttered in the wind, and two branches stuck out at awkward angles to serve as arms.  
As a moan floated from inside the house, the man drew back his fist and punched the snowman. Snow scattered, and one of the "arms" snapped. The red scarf stained the snow, looking like a pool of red in the darkness. The man returned to his car and drove away, dark blue eyes gazing intently at the road.  
*end flashback*  
  
Everyone's got an agenda,  
Don't stop, keep that chin up, you'll be alright.  
Are you still the same?   
Has your opinion changed?  
  
*flashback*  
It was spring. The newly wed couple admired their brightly colored garden. "It's spring." Duo said, cuddling against Wufei's chest. "You know what that means."   
"Love is in the air?" Wufei asked, kissing Duo's cheek.  
"Well, that too." Duo admitted. "But I was thinking more along the lines of the Easter Bunny."   
Wufei smiled, knowing what Duo was hinting about. The same thing he had been hinting about all week. "Are you suggesting an Easter Egg Hunt?" he asked.  
"With candy?" Duo asked hopefully.  
"Chocolate." Wufei agreed.  
Duo smiled slyly. "I like chocolate. Especially chocolate syrup."   
"We've got some in the fridge." Wufei replied, imitating Duo's smile.  
"I know. And ice cream, and cherries, and whipped cream, and sprinkles. We could make chocolate sundaes and then watch a movie!" Duo exclaimed.   
Wufei laughed, unable to contain himself. "We could do that." he said. "Until then, though, we can satisfy your sweet tooth with an Easter Egg Hunt."   
A smile lit up Duo's face. "Okay! I'll find them first! No, wait. I'll hide them! No... You hide them, and I'll find them."   
"Okay. I'll hide them first." Wufei agreed, surpressing more laughter. "Just let me get them ready."  
Duo "patiently" waited in the front of the house, swinging idley on the tire swing hanging from a tall oak tree that he and Wufei had rigged up. Finally, after what seemed like hours to Duo, Wufei called him to find the eggs.   
Being an ex-Gundam pilot, Duo found a basket-full of eggs within two minutes. As Duo counted the eggs to see how many there were left, he found twenty-three brightly colored plastic eggs, rattling with promising surprises.  
What egg hunt is complete without the ever-elusive "last egg"? You know, the one that you finally give up on, and then find the week after while mowing the lawn? After half an hour of fruitless searching, joined shortly by Wufei, the couple finally gave up. The last egg could not be found.  
Deeply tanned hands ran firm fingers over the neon-blue egg. Inside rattled a Hershy's kiss, but the mysterious man didn't bother opening it. Why had be taken it?   
"I don't know." he answered himself gruffly. He turned away, and with a careless backhand, tossed the egg behind him, shattering a glass window with a deafening crash, interupting the residents of the house, who had found a very interesting way to make ice cream sundaes.  
*end flashback*  
  
I know I let you down,   
Again and again.  
I know I never really treated you right.  
I've paid the price,  
I'm still paying for it every day.  
  
*flashback*  
Quatre and Trowa gazed into each other's eyes. "I do." Trowa said solemnley, just as Quatre had done moments ago.   
The preacher's voice was a drowned out by a blur of emotion, but both Quatre and Trowa understood, and embraced with a long kiss. A loud cheer went up through the wedding guests, inappropriate for anyone's wedding except the wedding of a circus clown to an ex-pilot.  
Quatre almost imagined that he heard Duo's loud whooping, but of course he didn't. Neither Duo or Wufei had come because Heero was there, serving as Trowa's best man.   
"Why won't they just make up?" Quatre murmmured against Trowa's lips, soft tears welling up.   
"Don't think about that right now." Trowa commanded. "This is a happy time."   
"A happy time." Quatre echoed, melting further into the kiss, tears drying before they had fully fallen.   
"That's enough, you two." Heero's voice cut in. Quatre looked up, blinking his green eyes at Heero in confusion. "You still need to cut the cake. Everyone waiting." he finished, a slight smile playing on his lips.  
Quatre pulled away from Trowa, but still clutched his right hand as he led to the cake, or rather, all three cakes. How could one cake possibily feed all of Quatre's sisters, the 40 Maguanacs, an entire circus, plus a few extra odds and ends who had also been included in the list of guests, and a few who hadn't.   
"If only Duo and Wufei were here..." Quatre couldn't help but sigh.   
Before Quatre and Trowa could cut the cake, a group of girls ran up with a boquet of flowers. "Hello, Relena. Hilde. Dorothy. Noin. Catherine." Before Quatre could continue the impossibly long list of girls (half of whom hadn't been invited in the first place), he was interupted by Relena, who seemed to be the ringleader of the crowd.  
"Here, Quatre!" she exclaimed, shoving the flowers into Quatre's arms. "Throw the boquet!"   
Quatre blushed. "I'm not a bride." he protested.   
"But your much closer to a bride than him." Dorothy pointed out, nodding her head towards Trowa.   
"Besides, if Duo could do it, so can you." Hilde agreed.  
Quatre tried to pretend she hadn't mentioned Duo's name, and turned around, accepting his fate. He threw the flowers over his shoulder, and turned back around to see the results.   
Quatre was shocked at the scene of utter chaos. It was a mad rush for the pink and purple roses as they sailed through the air. Dozens of women, married and not reached for the flowers. A pristine white, lacy glove clamped over the stems... The same moment that a ringless, pale hand did.   
Relena and Noin glared at each other for a long moment. It looked as if a fight would break out any moment. Quatre was about to jump in, but before he could, a light hand tapped Noin's shoulder.  
"Noin? You won't be needing that." Zechs' calm voice said.  
Noin turned in curiosity. "What do you mean?" she asked, retaining her hold on the flowers.  
"Well, I mean... Noin, would you marry me?" Zechs asked.  
Noin let go of the flowers and threw her arms around Zechs, murmmurig something in his ear that the crowd took to be "Of course I will", but judging from the way Zechs' eyes lit up, was probably more along the lines of "My room. My bed. Tonight."  
As Zechs walked out the door after the wedding, Trowa smiled slightly as he gave Trieze a half-shrug. Trowa almost felt sorry for the man. First he lost Wufei, and now Zechs. What would Trieze do now?   
Trowa smiled as he looked down at his blond angel. If only Duo and Wufei were here, this would be perfect....   
*end flashback*  
  
So maybe I shouldn't have called,  
Was it too soon to tell?  
Oh what the hell.  
It doesn't really matter.  
  
"Heero, there's a lot we need to catch up on. It's been a year. How's it been?" Duo asked cheerfully.  
"Good." the named boy replied. Well, what was he expected to say? He could just picture it:  
"Just horrible! I spent the year smashing snowmen, stealing Easter eggs, and hanging around weddings that you couldn't go to. Oh, and I almost forgot, I spent a lot of time ripping up the invitation to your wedding, and managed to get them nearly microscopic! I'm pretty sure I could have done it, if I hadn't washed them down the sink."   
Duo's eyes half glazed over in happiness as he explained his life with Wufei. "He does lots of paperwork for the Preventers, and I mostly keep house. Although, I do a bit of singing on the side."  
"Singing? I never knew you sang." Heero replied.  
Duo's eyes narrowed for a moment. "I know. You never heard me sing."   
Heero regretted saying anything, and quickly changed the subject. "I'm now the Head of Security for--"  
"The Sanq Kingdom. You've had that job for a couple years now." Duo finished.  
"No, I work for the Winner Corporation." Heero corrected. "I couldn't stand working for Relena and having to deal with her so every day."  
Duo laughed at this, so hard that he nearly choked. Heero smiled to himself. Maybe it was possible for Duo to forgive him. If he just showed that he had really changed...  
  
How do you redefine something   
That never really had a name?   
Has your opinion changed?   
  
The sun was beginning to set over the horizon. "I'd better get going, it's getting late." Heero said, reliving the long conversation through his mind. They had talked about everything imaginable, from sports to the days during the war.   
"Hey, Heero?" Duo asked, sounding sincere. "I liked having you. Will you comeback sometime?"   
"You want to have me back?" Heero asked doubtfully.  
Duo smiled. "Well, I hated you because you hit me, you yelled at me, you critisized me at every chance... Now your the Heero I liked again. The calm, cool, way-too-perfect soldier, but the on the inside, your the sweet guy that I always liked. "   
"Am I forgiven?" Heero asked.  
"Not by a long shot, Heero." Duo laughed. "But you can be my friend. Your my friend, and Wufei's my lover, and that's the way it will always be from now on."   
"Can I come back next Saturday? That's my next day off." Heero asked.   
"Only if you bring Quatre and Trowa." Duo compromised.  
"It's deal." Heero agreed, walking out the door. "I'll see you then. Goodbye."   
As Heero started his car, he smiled to himself. This year would be even better for Duo and Wufei. They would have no smashed snowmen, no stolen Easter eggs, no broken windows. They wouldn't be the only ones having a good year. Duo's hatred now a thing of the past, Heero made a resolution to begin dating again.   
  
I see your face...  
I see your face...  



End file.
